


Sleeping Habits

by Snubberdoodle



Series: Domestic Warehouse JayRoy [3]
Category: DCU (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Night Terrors, i sat my ass up at 1 am and wrote this in hour, nothing graphic its only mentioned, past traumas, so if the descriptions aren't totally accurate that's why, two bros chillin in a warehouse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 16:09:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11211528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snubberdoodle/pseuds/Snubberdoodle
Summary: Violent nightmares are all too common for one Jason Todd. He sure is lucky he has someone who knows how to help.





	Sleeping Habits

Jason awoke suddenly in a cold sweat, body still shaking as another earth-shattering nightmare faded into memory once again. They were all the same; some tragic event from his past he could never really shake that he would be forcibly tossed back into until he was jolted awake, this usually being the part where he died. He was now frozen in place, terrified and unable to move with his heart pounding away at his ribcage. That part was always the same too. There was no point trying to move or cry out, he'd been dealing with all this long enough to know that, so he began the tedious process of calming himself down. It wasn't an easy task, or a quick one, but he knew how to be patient. This was the part where he sang songs to himself in his head, slowing his heartbeat to the beat of the music and distracting his brain from what he had just been experiencing. Teenage Dirtbag was fresh on his mind from when Roy had been playing it on loop earlier in the day so that's what he went with.

Limb function returned to him towards the end of the second mental play and he slowly and tenderly removed himself from the damp sheets that had been strangling him just moments before. His heart was still beating furiously and no amount of deep breaths could wrench the claws of terror from their death grip on every muscle in his body. The bedroom was much too dark in that moment even with the nightlight plugged in by the door which he thanked Roy again for the umpteenth time for convincing him to get as he inched his way towards it. It took forever to get through the doorway into the hall which pained no one more than it did Jason, who wanted nothing more than to burst into the light and wonderfully distracting noise of the workshop. But slow and steady was best for him now as he knew very well. Things would not go well if he bolted to his destination; his heart rate would increase even further, causing a spiral which would end up just as bad for him as staying in that dream forever. So, he took it one foot at a time.

Walking down the clanging metal stairs into the warehouse always calmed him slightly. It was like a metaphor for where his life was at: everything bad was behind him, and everything good was just ahead. He knew as his black socks hit the concrete floor that he would be okay. That his everything good would make sure of that. His everything good who was currently playing air guitar to a Queen song while he waited for his coffee to finish heating up in the microwave. The music was quiet, as was the rest of the tall ceilinged room they were in, and Roy made sure to stop the microwave before it went off. He was thoughtful like that. He took a deep drink and sighed happily before turning around to see Jason standing behind him, glistening with sweat and clutching his shoulders tightly, pupils blown wide with fear. He would never dare appear half this vulnerable to anyone else as nearly anyone else's first instinct would be to run at him and coo and cuddle him until his bad feelings evaporated into nothing. Roy however barely batted an eye at being snuck up on and instead flashed his partner a welcoming smile and moved to turn up the music.

"Ah Jaybird, thank god you're up I could really use your help with this."

He didn't need help and they both knew it. Roy could carry on without him, and he often did, but when Jason came down into the warehouse in the state he was in now it was best to put him to work. They both knew the routine by now. There had been a time when Roy had freaked out upon seeing Jason like this, had rushed him and asked what was wrong and who he should get for help, what his dream had been about and what he could do to stop it. Now he new how to actually help: by just being there. Sometimes Jason would talk about what he had seen (but only of his own freewill) and sometimes he wouldn't, and Roy had learned to live with that.

And so they sat for hours, singing along to whatever came over the radio, talking about conspiracy theories and old movies, or sometimes just staying silent in each others company as the music washed over them and Jason was asked to had over a wrench or something every couple of minutes. There were no prying questions or discussion of anything hero related, just two mentally ill twenty somethings dicking around in the middle of the night and Jason loved it.

These nights never started well by any definition of the word, but by five or six a.m. they would become some of his best memories. No night was exactly the same, Roy made sure of that, and although he never expressed it, Jason loved him for it. He loved Roy for a lot of reasons, reasons he could list in alphabetical order he'd thought about them so much, but these nights always reminded him of just how much Roy cared. There was no way Jason had done anything good enough to deserve that looser so he was going to hold onto him as long as he could.

The sun had long since risen when Jason felt ready to attempt sleep again. He waited until the conversation dulled down again before rising out of what was by this point his chair and stretching for the first time in hours. There was no need to say where he was going or why, Roy simply understood. 

"Don't sleep for too long babe, you gotta cook me breakfast in a few hours."

Roy's way of reminding him that they did have duties to attend to. Jason smiled at him, a type of smile that had only blessed one or two other faces in his lifetime. He responded as he started his climb up to their living area.

"You could live off coffee alone and we both know it."

A conceding hum and then Roy was back to his work, strapping his fireproof goggles back on his face and picking up a blowtorch. Jason had reached the top of the stairs and was about to cross through the doorway when an impulse struck him. He leaned out over the railing and shouted down to Roy over the woosh of the blowtorch.

"Harper! Hey, hey Roy!"

The noise subsided and Roy's freckled and ever so slightly smokey face turned to him as he positioned the goggles back on top of his head.

"What's up?"

"I love you."

Roy looked taken aback at first, as if he wasn't sure if what he had heard was real or not. When the realization finally sunk in a smile grew on his face that made Jason want to go back down there and kiss his stupid mouth. That smile made him happier than anything else had that night and he made a mental note to tell Roy how he felt about him more often because holy shit was that adorable. He turned to go when the seemingly frozen ginger decided to thaw out and actually respond.

"I-I love you too Jason."

And he had never meant anything more.

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't kidding in the tags btw i legit wrote this in a hour (I edited it the next morning but still) Be expecting plenty more DC content from me in the future, I've got like 8 different drafts in the works. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it and all that, and comments/compliments/criticisms are welcome and encouraged.


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